


Long Rides, Late Nights

by a_simple_whaleshark



Series: Where do we go now? [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Family Bonding, I'm Sorry, Post Season 2, Road Trips, all the hargreeves siblings need hugs, no beta we die like ben, so here we go, this idea popped into my head and would not let me rest, too soon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25879804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_simple_whaleshark/pseuds/a_simple_whaleshark
Summary: The goal: Get as far away from Reginald Hargreeves as possible.The means: A beat up minivan and the few extra dollars that they had managed to scrounge up.OrThe Hargreeves siblings attempt to build their new lives in a post non-apocalyptic world. One step at a time.
Series: Where do we go now? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877986
Comments: 22
Kudos: 224





	Long Rides, Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Hey kids, anyone else going through those season 2 feels?

Objectively, the Hargreeves siblings were doing pretty shit. Newly orphaned (could you even become an orphan at thirty?), and lacking in anything resembling an official identity or any form of finances. It was safe to say they’d had better days. But they were all together, which was not nothing.

“Well what do we do now?” Diego’s question was mostly directed at Five who had elected to ignore him in favour of pacing the sidewalk in front of the academy where they were all currently standing.

“Five?”

“At this point, I’m open to suggestions,” Five snapped back. “Anyone got any brilliant ideas to get us out of this mess?” 

He was freaking out, and doing a terrible job of hiding it. The pacing continued, along with a string of muttered curse words. A tense silence settled for a few moments. It was Luther who eventually spoke up,

“Why don’t we just leave?” 

He was met with several blank stares.

“Leave?” Vanya asked.

“Why not? It’s not like there’s anything holding us here, right?” Allison let her gaze sweep up the academy as she spoke. “It’s not like dad wants to see us anyways.”

Diego scoffed,

“Is he even really our dad anymore?”

“Oh God my head hurts.” Vanya sat down on the curb and sighed. 

“Come on guys,” Luther continued. “We’re free to do whatever we want. Let’s find a car or something, we can drive to a new town.”

“Are you idiots forgetting we don’t have any money?” Five sniped.

“Wait a minute, where’s Klaus?”

The group took a quick stock of their members, and sure enough, Klaus was nowhere to be found. That didn’t last long however. No more than a minute had passed since Diego had posed the question when Klaus came barreling out of the front doors, arms full of various trinkets.

“What the hell-”

Klaus let out a whoop,

“Alright party people, let’s blow this popsicle stand!”

“Seriously Klaus? You can’t keep your weird kleptomaniac tendencies under wraps for one day?” 

“Excuse me Allie, I’m just trying to help our little family acquire some funding.”

“What?”

“Klaus! You’re a genius!” Five quickly disappeared in a flash of blue, leaving his siblings staring in shock.

“So like… you all heard that right?” Klaus asked. “Five called me a genius? I want that put on the record.”

Five returned, arms also laden with shiny objects. 

“Alright, Klaus,” he turned to look at his brother. “I’m assuming you know where the nearest pawn shop is?”

And that’s how the Hargreeves siblings were able to obtain enough money to purchase an old beat up minivan, big enough to fit their circus of a family. They didn’t know where they were going, nor did they care. The only destination on their map was far far away from Reginald Hargreeves. 

They’d managed to make it quite a ways without any problems too, which was no small feat for their family.

Well  _ almost  _ without any problems.

“Pull over.”

A round of groans rang out through the van. Luther peered at Five through the rearview mirror.

“Seriously? Again?” he asked.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Five sniped back, “but I was under the impression that you  _ didn’t  _ want me to throw up all over you guys.” 

Diego turned from where he was sitting in the passenger seat to face Five.

“Yeah but this is the sixth time we’ve had to pull over in the past hour dude, do you even have anything left inside of you to throw up?”

“Well I guess we’ll just have to find out,” he replied with a bitter smile.

The answer, as it would turn out, would be no.

But nonetheless, Luther diligently pulled over onto the side of the road and Five clambered out of the van to retch and gag his heart out. 

The rest of the Hargreeves siblings did their best to ignore the heaving form of their smallest brother, but it was getting to be more and more difficult as the minutes ticked by. Somewhere in the vicinity of eight minutes of gagging with no promise of vomit later, Diego finally spoke up,

“Okay pukey, time to get back in!” He was met with a slap on his shoulder from Allison.

“Jesus Diego, give him a second.”

“We’re gonna be here all day at this rate!”

Five simply held up his hand, index finger lifted in a ‘one moment’ gesture. Then with one last heave, he spat up a miserable mouthful of bile.

Another round of groans, this time accompanied by some ‘ews’ and ‘oh Gods’. 

Five wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his uniform jacket and climbed shakily back into his seat. Wordlessly, he extended his hand out to Allison who promptly gave him a mint, just like she had done the five previous times they’d had to do this. He closed his eyes and curled in on himself, in hopes that if he made himself small enough he might cease to exist entirely and the nausea might finally go away. Of all things, Five would not have pegged himself as someone who got motion sickness. Hell, he was practically always in motion. But something about the way this van was sliding along the road was making his insides turn. Maybe it was partly due to the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten any real food. Or maybe it was because of these stupid teenage hormones. Or maybe it was because his stupid siblings wouldn’t let him drive. Because he never got car sick when he was the one driving. But boy was he car sick now, and he did not care for this shit one bit. 

“Maybe you should sit in the front?” came Vanya’s voice from the backseat. Diego immediately opened his mouth to object, but before any words could come out, Five was already replying in a dejected tone,

“It won’t help.” 

“Okay enough of this. Luther, pull into the next gas station you see.”

“What are we stopping for?” 

Allison took in her brother’s objectively pathetic form, the poor kid.

“To get your sorry ass some Gravol.” She then grimaced, “and hopefully some clothes that don’t have any vomit on them.”

In an attempt to appease Diego, Luther added,

“We need gas anyways.”

Once they arrived at the gas station. Responsibilities were split up. Luther would gas up the car. Vanya, Allison, and Klaus would fetch all necessary items like food and clothing. And Diego would stay in the car to make sure Five didn’t choke on his own vomit. Five insisted he didn’t need a babysitter and Diego tried to argue as well, but he was immediately silenced by one of Allison’s ‘mom glares’. 

“Vanya, you’re in charge of snacks because I don’t trust Klaus.”

“Good call.”

Allison and Klaus made their way over to the small clothing rack. They didn’t need much, just a couple of t-shirts and maybe some sweatpants. The first t-shirt Allison grabbed was bright purple with the words ‘World’s Best Grandpa’ printed on the front. Beside her, Klaus giggled,

“So we are definitely getting that for Five, yeah?”

“I mean it’s pretty much like our moral obligation, right?” she laughed back, then handed him the shirt. “Okay you grab some more clothes, I’m going to get some Gravol.”

“You got it!” he gave her a wink as she turned away. 

Allison scanned the shelves, whispering to herself as she did.

“Gravol, Gravol, Gravol...aha!”

She snatched one pack, but her eyes also lingered on a cold and flu medication. She had the sneaking suspicion that motion sickness was not the only thing that Five was suffering from. And it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. She was reading the age recommendations on the back of the package when she heard Klaus call her name from across the store.

“Oi, Allie! Let’s go, Diego’s getting his panties in a twist again.”

She quickly put the box back on the shelf and grabbed the child safe version of the medicine. Were thirteen year olds children? She thought it better to be safe than sorry, and besides Five didn’t have to know. 

The three of them proceeded back to the van, all of their newly purchased goods in tow. 

Allison knocked gently on Five’s window as a warning before she opened the door. He was still sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, but he lifted his head at Allison’s voice.

“Hey there, how’s it going?”

“I’ve been better,” he groaned in response. 

Allison had to agree, her brother was not looking so good. The bags under his eyes were considerably deep and his hair was plastered to his clammy forehead. She brushed it out of his eyes and smoothed it back gently. She let her hand linger on his forehead, long enough for her suspicions to be confirmed. He was definitely hot to the touch, and out of it enough to not complain about her touching him so much. If she didn’t know any better, she would have even said that Five was leaning into her hand. 

“Why did no one tell me that being car sick was so terrible?”

She laughed softly,

“You ever think that maybe you’re not just car sick?”

“What?”

“Come on Five, when was the last time you even slept? I mean in the past two weeks alone, you’ve managed to stop two apocalypses, you’ve been shot at multiple times and you’ve had to run for your life multiple times.  _ And _ you’ve had to deal with our disastrous family. And if you’re hiding another shrapnel wound from me, so help me God Five I will-”

He cut her off with a chuckle. Which had to be one of the most relieving sounds she had ever heard.

“No shrapnel wounds this time, I promise.”

“Okay, good,” she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “Here,” She cracked a water bottle and placed a pill in his hand, “this will help with the nausea.” 

When he was done swallowing, she gave him another pill, 

“And this will help with the fever.”

“Fever?” 

“Honestly Five, how did you ever take care of yourself?” 

Klaus appeared at Allison’s side,

“Hey old timer, we got you some new clothes!”

“Oh right, take off your jacket,” Allison ordered. “I’m throwing that hideous thing away.”

“But I like this jacket!” Allison could have sworn that sounded like a whine, but she didn’t comment.

“Five, it’s filthy!” 

“So?”

This was not an argument she was going to have with a sick, cranky teenager. 

“Whatever you can keep it, but it is going to go through the wash. And for now you can wear this,” she grabbed the purple shirt from Klaus and passed it over to Five.

Seemingly satisfied, Five stripped off his uniform and slipped on the shirt. Allison threw the dirty clothes in the back and shut the door. Five either didn’t notice the printed text on his shirt, or simply didn’t care because when Diego swivelled in his seat again and snickered out a ‘nice shirt’ comment, Five muttered a quiet ‘thank you’ and closed his eyes again. 

“Okay we ready?” Luther asked from the driver's seat.

“God, I hope so.”

Allison slid back into her seat across from Five,

“Let’s go.”

Some time later, they decided to stop for the night. Luther pulled into a little motel just off the highway. The sun was long set and everyone needed a break. 

Almost immediately after taking the medication, Five had dozed off in his seat and was still sleeping when Luther parked the van. 

“Should we wake him?” Vanya asked through a yawn. 

“No don’t,” Luther said softly. “I’ll get him.”

Allison had to admit that they must have been quite the odd sight. A group of thirty-somethings, half of them wearing gas station clothing, all of them sleep deprived, and one of them carrying a passed out teenager. 

To her credit, the motel clerk didn’t seem too shocked. Maybe this was the sort of thing that normally happened in these types of places. If so, Allison had to admit she felt sorry for the woman, who only sighed and offered up a resigned,

“We only have two rooms left.”

“We’ll take them.” Diego grabbed the keys and they made their way back outside.

“Dibs rooming with Vanya!” Allison piped up immediately.

“Yeah we can take Five too.”

“So what I’m hearing is slumber party for the boys! Well the boys minus Five, who let’s be honest, would be no fun at a slumber party anyways, am I right?”

Diego rolled his eyes, but there was no heat in his words when he gave Klaus a shove and asked,

“Do you ever stop talking?” 

Unfortunately two rooms only meant three beds. Two twins and one king. 

Diego immediately claimed the room with the twin beds, because in his words ‘there was no way in hell he was snuggling with any of them’. Which was fine by Luther, who did not particularly want to snuggle with Diego either. While Allison was fetching the rest of their stuff, Vanya helped Luther put Five down. She pulled the covers back while he gently laid their smallest brother on the bed. Vanya lifted the blankets back up once he was finished.

“God, looking at him like this,” she whispered, “you could almost just forget.”

“Forget that he’s one of the world’s biggest pricks with an alarming tendency towards violence?” Luther smiled, and Vanya smiled back. 

“Almost,” she laughed. When Luther tried (and failed) to stifle a yawn, she added, “you should get some sleep. You must be exhausted.”

He gave her a light pat on the shoulder, 

“You too sis, goodnight.”

And Vanya tried to get some sleep. She really did. But her eyes refused to stay closed, and nothing about the popcorn pattern of the motel ceiling was helping her to feel anymore drowsy. Her mind was racing and she couldn’t seem to stop it. After all, she still had a lot to take in about her life and her family. She needed a smoke. She slipped quietly out of bed and snuck outside. She had barely gotten her cigarette lit when Allison joined her with a blanket.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked lightly as she enveloped the two of them in the quilt. 

Vanya was grateful she didn’t comment on the smoke, she didn’t really feel like explaining herself right now. Instead she just replied with a simple,

“Got a lot on my mind, you know?”

“Oh trust me, I know.” Allison gave a small smile before snagging the cigarette out of Vanya’s hand to take a drag. 

Vanya feigned a betrayed expression,

“Allison! I didn’t know you smoked.”

Allison let out a laugh,

“I could say the same to you.”

Vanya leaned into her sister, placing her head on her shoulder.

“You want to talk about it?” Allison asked as she passed the cigarette back to Vanya.

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “How did we even get here?”

After a slight pause, Allison sighed as well,

“And where do we go now?” 

They were interrupted by a crash coming from their room.

“Oh shit, Five.” Vanya didn’t even have to put out the cigarette before Five was stumbling out the door looking panicked and confused. Allison got up and tried to put a hand on his shoulder,

“Five-”

But he interrupted her and pulled away.

“Where are the others?” 

“Five hey, it’s okay,” Vanya tried as she snubbed out the smoke. But Five didn’t appear to be listening to them. He began frantically knocking on the doors of their neighbouring rooms while calling out the names of his other siblings. 

“Five stop,” Allison called out. “Five, hey-” she grabbed one of his shoulders and turned him to face her, Vanya winced at the harshness of it. But Allison’s grip immediately softened when Five stopped struggling. “Five, we’re okay, you’re okay,” she soothed. “Luther, and Klaus and Diego are all okay, they’re just sleeping in that room.” She pointed at the door on the other side of Vanya. Her eyes remained focused on his face, she watched as his breathing slowed back to a normal rate and the confusion melted away. His eyes immediately shifted to the ground in embarrassment. 

“I’m sorry, I just- I just woke up and you weren’t there and I-”

“Don’t be sorry,” Allison gave his shoulder a light squeeze. 

“Besides, we’re not exactly peaches and cream out here either.” Vanya mumbled through the cigarette in her mouth as she lit up another smoke.

Five sat down beside her, and Allison sat back down beside Five.

“What are you guys even doing out here?”

“Oh you know, just casually discussing the general fucked upness of our lives.” Vanya punctuated her sentence by flicking the ash off of her cigarette.

Five contemplated that for a moment, then replied with,

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” Allison thought she might have been hearing things.

Five sighed,

“If it wasn’t for me-”

“We’d all be dead. You know this right?” Allison reached over to feel his forehead again. He was still warm, but not enough to be delusional.

“But-”

“No Five,” Vanya spoke up this time. “We’re here because of you. You saved us.”

Five went quiet again.

“You know we love you right?”

He didn’t respond. Allison swore she could hear her own heart physically breaking. She wrapped an arm around his small frame and brought him closer to her. Vanya scooched in as well.

“I guess we don’t say it enough in this family,” she sighed. “But we love you Five. And we would do anything for you.” She rested her head atop of his. 

He sniffed and then aggressively scrubbed his hand across his face. Neither Allison, nor Vanya commented. They were only interrupted by Klaus emerging from his shared room.

“What’s all the commotion out here party people?” 

Vanya flicked her cigarette again,

“We’re all just agreeing that we need to say ‘I love you’ to each other more.”

“Oh amen to that sister, everyone in this family could do with a little more love.”

Allison rolled her eyes as Klaus sat down.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” she asked.

“Amazingly enough, no. I mean you’d think that this whole stopping the end of the world and everything would really take it out of someone, but nope-” he popped the ‘p’ sound, “wide awake.” 

They all sat in a comfortable silence after that. 

Five reached over and took Vanya’s smoke, before anyone could object, he crushed it under his shoe. 

“Smoking is bad for you,” he mumbled. “I didn’t save all of your asses just for you to slowly poison yourself and die.”

“Oh come on old timer, you’re no fun,” Klaus whined.

Five replied with a yawn. Which made Vanya yawn, which made Klaus yawn, which made Allison stand up and say,

“Okay, we should probably get some sleep.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Vanya stood up too.

“Can I room with you guys? Luther and Diego both snore so loud, and I don’t want to sleep on the floor anymore.”

So the four of them all piled into one big bed, with Five and Vanya in the middle and Allison and Klaus on the outsides. And for the first time in a long time, Five felt safe enough to close his eyes and drift off to sleep. He wasn’t alone anymore. He had his family, and they were all going to figure things out. Together. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> anyways, let's discuss the myriad of reasons why Five wouldn't want his family to smoke mmkay :)  
> (not saying the smoke reminds him of their charred bodies or anything, or how he might associates cigarettes with the handler which also brings up unpleasant feelings)
> 
> also I made Diego out to be a bit annoying in this, but I swear I love that man, besides I'm sure he has lots of reasons to want to get away as soon as possible. 
> 
> leave a comment or a kudo if you enjoyed this! I'll probably be making it into a little slice of life series with the Hargreeves trying their best to be normal humans so stay tuned for that, also feel free to drop suggestions of what you'd like to see them get up to


End file.
